The world around us is aglow this time of year with colorful Christmas lighting displays. Taking great pictures of lighting displays is not difficult and lets you enjoy the holiday season longer. Your pictures will also be a good reference tool for the future. They will refresh your memory regarding previous year’s decorations, plus pictures of other locations may stimulate you to try new effects at home.

Most point & shoot cameras (both conventional and digital) with adjustable exposure will work fine, as will all SLRs. Set your camera on a tripod, because you'll be shooting in dim light with a long exposure time. The exposure time will vary depending on the ISO speed and the brightness of the scene. Exposure can be a little tricky, since lighting displays vary in the quantity of lights used and how much other non-lighted detail you want to include in the picture. If the scene is uniformly lit, auto-exposure will work fine. If the scene has some large and empty dark areas, you should set the exposure compensation to underexpose the shot by about 2 f-stops. (Set the compensation dial to -2.) Otherwise, the camera will make the picture too light and the color in the bulbs will wash out.

If your camera automatically fires the flash, use the flash-off setting to deactivate it. However, you may want to try setting the camera in the slow shutter flash mode (sometimes called “night shot”) if your camera has this function. This mode slows the shutter speed and allows the colored lights to record on the image, while the flash adds some light to the foreground.

A star or crosscreen filter will add a nice starburst effect to holiday lighting pictures, too. If possible, shoot your pictures at dusk before the sky goes totally dark. The rich dark blue of the dusk sky is more interesting visually than the solid black night sky. Also, the dusk sky is less likely to throw off your camera’s metering system. (And the lab’s printing equipment, if you have your photos commercially printed.)